Author: William Kurelek. Published by Niagara Falls Art Gallery, Kurelek Collection, 1980, 1st Edition. Printed in Canada by Harmony Printing Ltd., Toronto, ON. Like New Condition HARDCOVER BOOK. No Dust Jacket was issued. Clean inside, tight spine. Size: 11 x 8.5 inch, 75 pages with index.
THE UKRAINIAN PIONEER, by William Kurelek, tells the story of Ukrainian immigration between 1900 and 1939, using Kurelek's famous 1971 mural as illustrations inside this book.
William Kurelek garnered national attention in postwar Toronto for his distinctive figurative painting and photographically influenced pictorial compositions. Working and exhibiting within a milieu of established and emerging contemporary trends ranging from abstract painting to performance art, Kurelek—as figurative painter and picture framer—projected the image of a medieval craftsman for the modern age. Kurelek defined his creative identity in terms of a somewhat one-dimensional view of medieval art: “The message is the most important thing in the picture for me,” Kurelek explained in a 1962 interview; “experimentation is secondary.” Nonetheless, in order to achieve his intended message, Kurelek needed to become adept at pictorial composition so he could seamlessly blend style and content. Kurelek’s paintings reveal what curator Tobi Bruce describes as the artist’s particularly keen sense of “pictorial staging.” Whether the setting is a claustrophobic interior or the flat, open Canadian prairie, Kurelek marshalled both style and composition to dramatic effect.
For more info on this book, or William Kurelek, or to order direct from the Niagara Falls Art Gallery, please see: About William Kurelek - NFAG
